German authorities yesterday sent out a powerful signal of their determination to crack down on the far right when it emerged that the federal chief prosecutor had taken personal charge of the latest trial for race murder. Kay Nehm, whose intervention is usually reserved for cases of suspected terrorism, had earlier said neo-Nazi violence posed a threat to security because of the climate of fear and intimidation it created.
Three young men from Dessau in eastern Germany went on trial in the city of Halle yesterday, accused of a killing that has provided an impetus for mounting concern over the far right. Mozambique-born Alberto Adriano died on June 14 after being kicked and beaten as he made his way home in the early hours.
His German widow, Angelika, faced the three skinheads yesterday as a prosecutor from Mr Nehm's department opened the case for the state. The victim was the father of three children, aged eight, three, and six months.
"The defendants assumed that Adriano could die as a result of their attack", Joachim Lampe told the court. "But their hatred of foreigners made them indifferent to this".
The chief prosecutor's decision was the latest initiative aimed at curbing neo-Nazism, which is rife in the east. It was announced as the chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, began a tour to gain insight into the area's problems.
Speaking in Bad Elster on Monday, Mr Schröder called on people to stand up to the neo-Nazis to prevent them undoing east Germany's achievements since reunification.
In recent weeks, the government has pressed for a ban on the most extreme of the legal right-wing parties, pledged more than £20 million to an anti-racist drive in schools and announced an advertising campaign to encourage tolerance.
Manfred Pöchel, the interior minister of the regional government in Saxony-Anhalt, where Mr Adriano was murdered, called for the toughest possible sentence if the defendants were found guilty.
Mr Adriano's death was important in galvanising the authorities into action. According to the indictment, his attackers beat then kicked him with their military-style boots for five minutes. They continued kicking him and shouting "Get out of our country, you Negro pig", even after Mr Adriano had stopped moving.
Enrico Hilprecht, aged 24, sat impassively as the court was told how he had kicked Adriano 10 times in the head. He faces up to 15 years in prison for the killing.
He and his co-defendants, Frank Miethbauer and Christian Richter, both 16, were said to have chanced on Mr Adriano as they stormed through Dessau shouting "Blacks out". The younger men are liable to receive a shorter sentence of up to 10 years.
After the indictment was read, the judge ordered proceedings to continue behind closed doors because of the law regarding juveniles. A lawyer for the victim's family said all three defendants had admitted in closed evidence that they had taken part in the attack.
The defence is expected to argue that they were too drunk at the time to be fully responsible. An expert witness is to be called to testify on their condition after they were arrested at the scene of the attack after residents called the police.
The link between far-right violence and state security was made earlier this year in a report from the security service that played a role in stirring anxiety. The BVD, Germany's equivalent of MI5, said it had detected terrorist-style organisation among neo-Nazis.
Underlying the authorities' disquiet, there are other factors - notably a concern that racism in the east could hinder Germany's integration into a globalised economy. Germany currently accepts some 200,000 newcomers each year.
Already this year, the government has offered 20,000 temporary work permits to computer specialists, many of whom it expects to come from the Indian sub-continent.
Chronology of violence
1990
A 28-year-old Angolan is murdered in the eastern town of Eberswalde, Brandenburg, in what is regarded as Germany's first post-unification race murder. The early 90s are marked by a string of attacks on hostels for immigrants and asylum-seekers.
1992
Race riots in Rostock. A hostel for Vietnamese is besieged for five days.
1993
Skinheads beat up a black member of the US luge team in the resort of Oberhof in the former East Germany.
1996
Two neo-Nazis jailed by a Potsdam court for a racist attack on three black Britons. Noel Martin of Birmingham is left paralysed from the neck down. Ten immigrants and asylum-seekers die in an inferno at their homes in the northern port of Lübeck in the worst racist attack in Germany since the war.
2000
April
Five skinhead youths given sentences of between four and six years in Stralsrund for jumping on the heads of two Vietnamese men in an attack which put one victim into a coma for 10 days. The sentences are greeted as a change in attitude towards racist violence.
June
Alberto Adriano from Mozambique murdered in Dessau.
July
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder announces that a crackdown on the far right is a priority of the second half of his government's term. Two days later, a bomb explodes outside a Düsseldorf railway station injuring 10 immigrants. One, a pregnant woman, loses her unborn baby in the attack.
August
Official committee set up to consider ban on the National Democratic party of Germany (NPD), which has a prominent skinhead element.
